Figurine and means for animating same



Aug. 11, 1964 R. ELLIS FIGURINE AND MEANS FOR ANIMATING SAME 3Smeets-Sheet 1v Filed Oct. l5 1962 Aug- 11, 1964 R. ELLIS 3,143,826

FIGURINE AND MEANS FOR ANIMATING SAME Filed oct. 15, 1962 3 sheets-sheet2 Aug. 11, 1964 R. ELLIS FIGURINE AND MEANS FOR ANIMATING SAME 3Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Oct. 15 1962 INVENTOR.

United States Patent O 3,143,826 FIGUREN@ AND MEANS FOR ANEIVIATING SAMERobert Ellis, 350 E. Plaza, Solana Beach, Caiif. Fiied Oct. 15, 1962,Ser. No. 230,579 7 Qiaims. (Cl. 46 240) This invention relates tofigurines and means for animating same and the principal object of theinvention is to improve on my previous Patent #2,942,378 issued June 28,1960 in that, no slots are herein required on the walking surface forthe figurines the necessary alternating forward movements of the legs ofthe figurines being secured through magnetic traction through the thinnonmagnetic walking surface.

Another object of the invention is the provision of means for impartingalternate forward motion to the legs of a figurine from two beltsrunning over pulleys closely underneath the walking surface, permanentmagnets being attached t the belts.

Another object of the invention is the provision of means foraccellerating the walking figurines into running figurines by increasingthe length of the step thereof by merely turning a small lever.

Another object of the invention is the provision of means forautomatically speeding up the forward motion of the figurines toco-incide with the increased length of step thereof so as to exactlysimulate a running creature.

And still another object of the invention is the provision of meanspreventing the speeding up of the forward motion of the figurinesirrespective of the increased length of step thereof.

And yet another object of the invention is the provision of means forcausing the figurines to traverse an endless variety of pathways overthe walking surface even while the device is in operation.

And still another object of the invention is the provision of means forcausing the figurines to bend at the knee of the forwardly stepping legand simultaneously lift the forwardly stepping leg slightly to exactlysimulate the act of walking.

Other and further objects will appear in the specification and bespecifically pointed out in the appended claims, reference being had tothe accompanying drawings eXemplifying the invention and in which:

FIG. l is a top view of the device with the non-magnetic at unbrokenfloor broken away in part.

FIG. 2 is a section of FIG. 1 on the line 2 2 thereof.

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic view of the gear train used in translatingcontinuous rotary motion into the required step by step alternatingforward motion without un-natural jerking action.

FIG. 4 is a top view of the wiudlass used to alter the traverse of thefigurines over the oor.

FIG. 5 is a section on line 5 5 of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is an isometric drawing illustrating how the length of the stepof the figurine is increased.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged view of the attachment between the permanentmagnets and the belts.

FIG. 8 is a section on the line 8 8 of FIG. 9.

FIG. 9 is a section on the line 9 9 of FIG. 8.

FIG. l0 is an enlarged top view of the cam which operates the kneejoint.

FIG. 11 is a side view of FIG. 10.

Referring to the drawings in which like characters and numerals ofreference refer to similar parts throughout the several views, thenumeral 15 denotes a substantially square box to the upper edges ofwhich is secured by screws 16 the thin non-magnetic cover 17, preferablyof sheet aluminum or plastic. Within the box 15 and underneath cover 17are mounted the two similar pulleys 18 and 19 with pulley 18 attached toshaft 20 and superimposed over pulley 19 attached to hollow shaft 21.

3,143,826 Patented Aug. 1l, 1964 ICC Shaft 20 projects through androtates within hollow shaft 21, the latter being attached to gear 22which meshes with gear 23 and which together produce an intermittentforward motion to hollow shaft 21. Similarly, the gears 24 and 25respectively produce an exactly similar uniform intermittent motion toshaft 28 but the dwells occurring when part 45 of gear 23 slides overpart 26 of gear 22, for instance, are exactly opposite in time intervalwhen the dwell part 45A of gear 25 slides over part 26A of gear 24, thusproviding alternate uniform intermittent motion to the legs of afigurine as will hereinafter be more fully described. See FIGS. 2 and 5of my previous Patent #2,942,378. Gears 23, 25 and worm gear 38 all arepress fitted to shaft 29, the Worm gear 38 being driven in the directionof arrow 30 by worm 31 attached to shaft 32, by electric motor 33connected to wires 34 and 35. The vertically disposed shaft 29 isrotatable within ybearing 34 attached to bottom of box 15. Thus, whenthe motor 33 causes the worm gear 38 to rotate, in the direction ofarrow 30, the shafts 29 and 21 together with pulleys 18 and 19respectively will also rotate in the same direction but intermittentlyand alternately in equal time limits, as one pulley, say 19 dwells, dueto parts 45 and 26 being in dwell position, pulley 18 will rotate, dueto teeth 27 and 28 of gears 24 and 25 being in mesh at the same time,etc.

Additional pulleys 39 and 40, similar to pulleys 18 and 19, and inhorizontal line therewith, are loosely mounted on vertical shaft 41attached to oor 42. Two endless belts 43 and 44 pass over pulleys 18 and39 and 19 and 40 respectively, these belts 43 and 44 being composed ofelastic material capable of stretching such as soft rubber, woven springwire, etc., the reason for same being hereinafter described. Two idlerpulleys 46 and 47, attached to short shafts 48 and 49 respectively, andwhich shafts bear in square bearing blocks 50 and 51 respectively. Thesebearing blocks are slidably confined within longitudinal troughs 52 and53 respectively and, attached t0 each block is a cable 54 and 55respectively. Each of the troughs terminate near an upper corner of thebox 15 as illustrated, the cables 54 and 55 each being adapted to bewound upon a Windlass 60, see FIGS. 4 and 5. This windlass is composedof a spool 61 securely attached to square shaft 62, the top of whichshaft protrudes through the cover 17 and into crank handle 63 to the endof which is knob 64, while the lower end of shaft 62 is rotatable infloor material 42. Also serving as a bearing for the upper end of shaft62 is the disc 65 which may be secured to the cover 17 by screws 66.Upstanding on the upper face of disc 65 are circularly disposed ratchetteeth 67 as illustrated.

The operation of this device is now as follows; in the positionillustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 the electric motor 33 is energized byinserting the customary attachment plug into the receptacle 68, thecircuit being completed through wires 34 and 35, the pulleys 18 and 19thus alternately rotating a small part of a revolution, just suicient tocause one usual length walking step by the gurines 71 which are thuscaused to walk over the unbroken cover 17, there being a thin soft ironarmature attached to the bottom of each shoe or hoof of the figurine andwhich armatures are magnetically attracted to the permanent magnets 73,the magnets sliding along the undersurface while the armatures slideover lthe upper surface of the non-magnetic cover 17. Each magnet 73 isattached to the top of flat spring 74, the other end of each spring armbeing looped so as to clamp the rubber belt 43 as better illustrated inFIG. 7. The gurine 71 will thus walk over cover 17 in a loop defined bythe belt 43. As will be readily understood, four-legged creatures mayalso be used so that the child may have an interesting menagerie all inanimated display before him. Any figurine may easily be lifted off cover17 and replaced by another without stopping the device or the otheranimated creatures or apparatus so that an unlimited number ofcornbinations may result. But even this interesting procedure mayeventually bore an active child so I provide means for causing thefigurines to walk faster and finally run in natural imitations bystretching belts 43 and 44 simultaneously by gradually rotating eitherone or both crank handles 63 of the windlass 60, this causing cable 54to wind upon spool 61 bringing bearing block 50 together with idlerpulley 46 to position illustrated by dotted lines 50A and 46A whichsimultaneously stretches the belt 43 and 4.4 to position 43A. As theelastic belts stretch, it will be apparent that the distance betweenmagnets 73 also increase in direct proportion to that of the entirebelt, thus causing the stride of the legs of the figurine to increasecorrespondingly to any distance between a slow walking step to a runningstride depending on the extent of stretching of the belts, thisdepending on the distance the idler' pulleys 46 and 47 are pulledtowards the opposite corners of the box 15. Idler pulley 47 may also bepulled towards its corner in the same manner, stretching the belts stillfurther and simultaneously defining adiferent path for the figurines totraverse, in fact, it will be apparent that an unlimited number ofpathways may be easily attainedY merely by manipulating the crank handle63, which handles are automatically secured in its last forward turningposition bythe edgepof handle 63 contacting the upturned edge of arespective tooth 67, the tension of the rubber belts holding theposition taut. To release the idler pulley 50A towards its normalposition, the at spring crank handleV is merely lifted slightly, asillustrated by dotted lines 63A in FIG. 5, so that it will pass over theprotruding edges of teeth 67 and turned opposite -in direction to arrow75.

The figurines thus not only take a longer stride simulating running butthe speed of the belts and thereby the figurines are automaticallyincreased to a running speed by means of idler pulleys 76 and 77 whichare loosely mounted in superimposed position on shaft 78, attached tolever arm 79 swingable around pivot 80 and held taut against belts 43and 44 by helical spring 81. In the walking position, as illustrated bythe full lines in FIG. 1, the electric circuit has resistance wires 82interposed within the circuit in series, thus causing the motor 33 torotate at reduced speed but when the idler pulleys 46 and/or 47 arepulled towards the opposite corners of box 15, the increased tension onbelts 43 and 44 will force the idler pulleys 76 and 77 against tensionof spring 81 into position shown by dotted lines 83 together with thelever arm 79, upon which electrical contact (not illustrated) ismounted, thus cutting out the resistance 82 from motor circuit inproportion to the degree of stretching of belts 43 and 44 and permittingthe motor to speed up. The increased length of stride of the figurinesis thus automatically adjusted to the increased speed of natural runningposition. Protruding knob 84 may be manipulated to prevent the motorspeeding up as above described by retaining lever arm 79 in original orintermediate position by screwing it in or out and allow the figurinesto walk in any number of varied pathways by manipulating the idlerpulleys 46 and 47 regardless, as will be readily understood.

In orderV to naturally simulate a person or animal while in motion, itis desirable to bend the knee on the forward step and this is bestaccomplished, in connection wth magnetically interposed traction, byproviding a pivot joint 90 at the front end of the knee as betterillustrated in FIGS. 8 and 9Vwherein the operating lazytong mechanism orskeleton 91, preferably made of steel strip, has a rearwardly bent legpart at 92 which, when the leg is straight (on the rearward step) causesthe lower covering pants to par-t further laway from the front thereofas at 93 than when the leg is moving forward when the interior of thelower pants part is adjoining the skeleton leg 91 as at 94, thus givingthe appearance of bending the knee. The'body 95 and legs of the figurineis preferably composed of thin moulded plastic, there being a verticaltrough 96 on each side of the body in which an upper and lower bearingblock 97 and 98 respectively are adapted to slide. The lower bearingblock 98 receives the horizontal shaft 99 which shaft forms a fulcrumfor both skeleton legs 91 while the upper bearing block 97 receivesshaft 100 in the same manner. Connecting rods 101 bear loosely overshaft at their upper ends while pins 102 loosely pivot their lower endswith the upper endsrof legs 91, thus providing a lazy-tong mechanismwhich enables a two-legged creature to stand upright and to bemanipulated as in walking by suitable power applied to the feet. Thebody 95 of the figurine always rests by gravity onto the bearing block97 while the legs R and L respectively are pivoted to shaft 99 by itslugs 103 and therefore raise and lower slightly as in natural walking aswill be readily understood.` The lower pant leg, L, which is shown inthe act of taking a forward step, is beginning to bend at the kneepivot90, by action of the connecting rod or cable 104, the lower end of whichis attached to the lug 105 and the upperend thereof to the lug 106 beingan integral part of cam 107 which maniplates the rod 104, first upwardlyto the middle of the step and thereafter downwardly again to the end ofthe forward step, the lower pant leg L swinging slightly around thepivot 90 as a center as indicated by dotted lines 108, thus simulatingthe bending of the knee as in natural walking or running. As the knee ishindered in the extend of bending either by the inside of the pant legimpinging against the skeleton leg 91 at 94 kor by the slight projection109 striking the outer part of upper leg L and as the cam 107 has even aslightly higher lift, it will be apparent that the entire leg L willV belifted as in natural walking. The hole in the lug 103 at the upper endof each pant leg is slightly elongated as illustrated at 110, thuspermittingV the forwardly moving leg to first bend its knee and thenraise its leg slightly before putting its leg and foot down. During themeantime, the skeleton legs 91 remain as usual, the lower ends beingpivoted at 111 to armature plate 72. When the elastic belts 43 'and44.are stretched as previously described, the permanent magnets 73 willautomatically increase their spacing as illustrated in FIG. 6, by 73A,causing the armature plates 72 to-follow thus also increasing the lengthi'f stride of the figurines as indicated by 72A in dotted ines.

The cam 107 operates as follows: the pin 102 to which both connectingbars 101 and upper skeleton legs 91 are pivoted, extend into the curvedslot 112 of the cam as better illustrated in FIGS. l0 and l1 and, asthis pin is permanently magnetized, it remains seated therein. This pin102 follows a back and forth movement around the slightly upstandingtriangle 113 according to the arrows 114, the dotted circles 115denoting the limits of the walking position. The pin 102 must travelunder the triangle 113 on the forward step and above the triangle on thereturn or rearward standing still period of the step on account of theslightly raised projections 116, both of which drop as the pin 102passes, the slot between rising slightly at to compensate. The cam 107is pivoted to the body at 117 as illustrated and moves up and down atthe forward step as the pin 102 passes under the triangle 113, slightlylifting the rod 104 during the first half of the forward step and thenlowering the rod 104 during the second half of the forward step andwhich, being con-V nected to the knee at 105, will lift the lower halfof the leg L as previously described. The legs R and L then alternatesimilarly at each step. The legs of four legged creatures may also becaused to bend the knees and slightly ml y raise the legs on the forwardstep in a similar manner, the four legs being interconnected as will bereadily apparent. The pulleys 18, 19, etc. are all in the samehorizontal plane. The cam 107 swings around arc 121 with pivot 117 as acenter. As leg R dwells (while leg L is taking a forward step) itsrespective pin 102 traverses the upper course of slot 112 and neitherthe cam 107 nor the rod 104 connected to its respective knee, movesrelatively. The idler pulleys 46 and 47 may also be placed outside ofthe belt loop 43 and the pulleys pushed instead of pulled into anydesired position. The speed of the belts may be increased by gearinginstead of as shown.

From the foregoing description it will be apparent that I have evolvedan amusing, interesting, attractive and educational toy which has agreat variety of applications and modications such as animated figurinesof all kinds walking and running in a natural manner, some chasingothers, starting the running or walking action without stopping thedevice, altering the pathways at the will of the operator also withoutstopping, picking olf individual ligurines and substituting others againwithout stopping the device and incidentally causing the knees of thefigurines to bend in a natural manner, all operating over an unbrokenliat surface without any mechanical connection between the operatingmechanism and the acting figurines, proving mystifying and highlyinteresting to both operator and onlookers.

Various changes may be made in the embodiment of the inventionhereinabove specifically described without departing from or sacricingthe advantages of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. An amusement device for simulating animative walking creaturescomprising a thin unbroken non-magnetizable platform, a plurality ofpulleys rotatable closely underneath said platform, two endless beltsone superimposed over the other and looped around said pulleys, meansfor rotating said pulleys and belts in one direction alternately andintermittently, a permanent magnet attached to each of said belts, saidmagnets spaced apart a maximum distance of one ordinary walking step ofan associated legged gurine and contacting the underside of said thinunbroken non-magnetizable platform, and a legged figurine adapted totraverse the upper surface of said platform immediately above saidpermanent magnets, the legs of said gurine being pivoted thereto, saidlegged figurine having an armature at the bottom of each foot thereofand being adapted to walk in unison with the alternate forward movementsof said magnets underneath said platform.

2. An amusement device as in claim 1, the said endless belts beingelastic and stretchable, means for stretching said belts with means forretaining said belts in stretched position.

3. An amusement device as in claim 1, the said belts being elastic andstretchable, an idler pulley rotatable within said belt traverse, meansfor pulling said idler pulley together with a section of said elasticbelt in a separate direction angular to said original belt traverse, andmeans for retaining said idler pulley in any intermediate positionbetween the minimum and maximum distance possible of said idler pulleytraverse.

4. An amusement device as in claim l, the said legged figurine having askeleton lazy-tong mechanism and a hollow body in the shape of thedesired creature surrounding said skeleton, the aforesaid armaturesbeing pivoted to the lower ends of said skeleton, a similar verticalslot on the inner sides of said body, means for depending said hollowfigurine body to said skeleton within said opposite slots, a cam pivotedto the inside of said body, an elongated bearing at the connection ofthe upper leg parts to the fulcrum of the legs of said skeleton, bothlower leg portions of said body pivoted to the upper leg portions at theknees, and a pin connecting said skeleton parts adapted to operate insaid cam, and means for bending said knee and simultaneously slightlylifting the leg of said gurine at each forward step by the action ofsaid pin on said cam.

5. An amusement device for simulating animative walking creaturescomprising a thin unbroken non-magnetizable platform, a plurality ofpulleys rotatable closely underneath said platform, two endless beltsone superimposed over the other and looped around said pulleys, anelectric motor, gears between said motor and said pulleys, said gearsadapted to translate the rotary motion supplied by the motor tointermittent alternating forward motion to said pulleys and belts, anelectric resistance normally connected in electric series in the circuitof said motor, said resistance adapted to rotate said motor at reducedspeed, a permanent magnet attached to each of said belts and physicallycontacting the underside of said platform, the maximum spacing betweenthe magnets on said belts equalling an ordinary walking step of anassociated figurine, a legged figurine adapted to traverse the uppersurface of said platform immediately above said permanent magnets, thelegs of said figurine being pivoted thereto, said legged figurine havingan armature at the bottom of each foot thereof, said armatures beingmagnetically attracted to said magnets and adapted to walk in unisonwith the alternate forward movements of said magnets underneath saidplatform, the said endless belts being elastic and stretchable, meansfor stretching said belts and retaining said belts in any desiredstretched position, and means for cutting ou automatically the electricresistance in said motor circuit to speed up the motor as said belt isstretched.

6. An amusement device as in claim 5, the said electric resistance beingcut out of the electric motor circuit in direct predetermined proportionto the degree of stretching of said belt.

7. In an amusement device, a figurine having its legs animated to walkin an original traverse over a platform, two permanent magnets attacheda walking distance apart to two alternately forward moving beltsunderneath said platform, said belts being elastic and stretchable, andmeans for stretching said belts into a different and lengthier traverseand simultaneously increasing the speed of said belts to a running speedof said figurine and also simultaneously increasing the distance betweensaid permanent magnets to a running step to the legs of said figurine.

References Cited in the iile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,858,020 Linke May l0, 1952 2,645,880 Richter July 2l, 1953 2,942,378Ellis lune 28, 1960

1. AN AMUSEMENT DEVICE FOR SIMULATING ANIMATIVE WALKING CREATURES COMPRISING A THIN UNBROKEN NON-MAGNETIZABLE PLATFORM, A PLURALITY OF PULLEYS ROTATABLE CLOSELY UNDERNEATH SAID PLATFORM, TWO ENDLESS BELTS ONE SUPERIMPOSED OVER THE OTHER AND LOOPED AROUND SAID PULLEYS, MEANS FOR ROTATING SAID PULLEYS AND BELTS IN ONE DIRECTION ALTERNATELY AND INTERMITTENTLY, A PERMANENT MAGNET ATTACHED TO EACH OF SAID BELTS, SAID MAGNETS SPACED APART A MAXIMUM DISTANCE OF ONE ORDINARY WALKING STEP OF AN ASSOCIATED LEGGED FIGURINE AND CONTACTING THE UNDERSIDE OF SAID THIN UNBROKEN NON-MAGNETIZABLE PLATFORM, AND A LEGGED FIGURINE ADAPTED TO TRAVERSE THE UPPER SURFACE OF SAID PLATFORM IMMEDIATELY ABOVE SAID PERMANENT MAGNETS, THE LEGS OF SAID FIGURINE BEING PIVOTED THERETO, SAID LEGGED FIGURINE HAVING AN ARMATURE AT THE BOTTOM OF EACH FOOT THEREOF AND BEING ADAPTED TO "WALK" IN UNISON WITH THE ALTERNATE FORWARD MOVEMENTS OF SAID MAGNETS UNDERNEATH SAID PLATFORM. 